The truth sets you free
by Shadow flash
Summary: Harry must fight for the truth in all things and with the help of his new special friend and a powerful magical artifact, Harry now has the ability to do just that.Rated M for safety.
1. Chapter 1

While the threat of his auror friends may have brought him a large amount of joy, Harry soon realized that what he liked and what his uncle liked were two very different things.

"Boy!" was heard throughout the house as his uncle screamed at him. "Come here now!"

Harry sighed and prepared himself for the beating that was about to be visited on his overly thin white ass. Having successfully covered up the loss of his godfather, Harry vaulted down the steps. The only thing he didn't expect was his uncles fist colliding with his face before he even hit the floor. While the pain wasn't very bad for him ,all things considered, it was more the fall and landing on the stairs that got him seeing stars and knocking the breath out of him at the exact same instant. Harry felt more than saw that his uncle was bending down to pick him up. Like many victims of abuse, Harry immediately attempted to protect himself. However, being partly knocked out has its unfortunate side-affects. Some of these would be that there is a chance for disorientation, such as what Harry was experiencing at that time. Because of this Harry's attempt to knee his uncle in the groin failed horribly and ending up angering him more.

"You think that it's funny when your uncle gets threatened do you boy? Well guess what, they are never going to hear about any mistreatments that you feel you may go through this summer. You will send them a letter just like they asked but under our very careful supervision. And to make sure you don't send any other letters, that ruddy bird will be locked up at almost all times sending only the letters that we have read through and permit. Do you hear that boy?"

Throughout this speech Vernon was getting nearer and nearer and nearer to Harry and by the end, he was so close that Harry could feel his uncle exhaling. His breath was hot and he could smell his lunch, pizza by the way which upset Harry not at all that his relatives were leaving him out of the fun, he expected it after all.

Suddenly, Harry could no longer feel the breathing of his uncle. That's to be expected when you get thrown across the room and smashed with a sickening crunch into the wall. Harry was having trouble thinking at this point in time and had curled reflexively into the fetal position on the floor.

Feeling his world go dark, Harry was visited with a very unpleasant thought. Just let me die and then I won't be able to feel any pain at all. Almost as fast as this thought crossed his mind a picture of one his friends rose to his mind, and then another, and another, until he realized that he could not, no, would not die at the hands of his uncle like this, as a victim of abuse with no real family and little to no hope of a girlfriend, after all, the…incident with Cho was enough to prove that wasn't it?

"Serves you right to break a few bones while living under our house and treating us with such disrespect as to have your freaky friends threaten us?" his uncle broke in. "Do you understand what I'm telling you you freaky son-of-a-bit-"

Harry burst into action, quickly hitting his uncle in the face, knocking him back, and drawing his wand with a spell on his lips within the blink of an eye.

"You will not defile the names of my parents ever again, do you understand me you fat piece of shit?" Harry nearly exploded with the magic raging against his self-control. His emotions told him to curse this fat bastard into a million pieces and then starting on the rest of the family, after all, they had caused him as much pain as their patriarch, emotionally if not physically.

His uncle stared at him for a good minute in shock at what Harry had just done. But, the color finally returned to his uncles chubby jowls as he stood up. "Boy, I don't believe that you give any orders around this house got it? Secondly I will call your parents any name that I wish to call them and theirs nothing that you can do about it.

Suddenly, Harry's emotions began to focus on what had happened to him in the last two years. Their was the Tri-wizard tournament that ended with Cedrics death, then their was the entire fiasco of his last year at school where he prosecuted for telling the truth ending in a climax with his godfathers death at the Ministry less than a month ago. Then Dumbledore came to mind. This man brought to the forefront anger that was not his own. To have waited so long to tell Harry the truth meant that Harry had lost all respect for the aged wizard. And finally came to mind one word that flipped Harry's world upside down. Truth. While this word meant very little by itself, it was more the fact that there was almost none of it in his life. With this thought in mind, Harry's path became clear to him. He must seek out the truths that had been hidden from him and from others. He must do this or perish at the hands of Lord Voldemort. This path began with Harry becoming his own person without the manipulations of anyone interfering, mainly Dumbledore.

"Uncle, what you believe and what is the truth are two very different things and therefore, you must be punished for speaking these lies about my parents who I know to were very great people, more than you could ever hope to be." And then when Harry's anger subsided, a new one took it's place, this coming from the sword that rested comfortably in his left hand. For a while, everyone just stared at the magnificent sword that Harry was holding that wasn't there moments ago. Then they all jolted from their stupor with a knock on the door. Harry, now the only one standing, decided to go answer the door and see who it was. On the way, he thought it might not be a good idea to open the door holding a sword so he quickly hid it behind his back. Opening the door, Harry laid eyes onto one of the few people that he wasn't expecting to see at that point in time.


	2. Chapter 2

"Wotcher Harry. How you doing?" asked the smiling form of Nymphadora Tonks or Tonks as she likes to be called.

To say that Harry was struck dumb would be a bit of an understatement. Harry had momentarily lost anything remotely close to a thought.

Tonks snapped him out of it by bringing attention to his wounded shoulder, his left that is.

"Harry, you're bleeding!" Tonks was shocked. How could the boy wonder, and the boy/man of her dreams, be bleeding. Oh sure she knew about the other times like when he saved the sorcerers stone, or bit by the basilisk, or… wow, the list just goes on and on doesn't it.

Harry, not thinking at all at this moment, just turned to look at his shoulder…and brought the mysterious sword into Tonks view.

Tonks' jaw dropped. She hadn't seen a sword that beautiful in… come to think of it ever. Besides the fact that she could literally feel the swords power radiating off of it, which made her wonder why she hadn't noticed it before, she could just tell that it… there was no other word for it, perfect. The way the hilt just seemed to become the crossguard and then the blade made her wonder who could craft such a beautiful thing. Momentarily forgetting about the bleeding young man in front of her she didn't realize that he had just slumped against the door frame until he nearly fell on top of her.

"Whoah there boy-o! Maybe we should get you somewhere safe so that we can deal present problems and then move onto "other" matters," she said.

Harry mumbled something about the last door up stairs and she realized he was talking about his bedroom. With a great heave on her part, Tonks lifted Harry onto one of her shoulders, despite being the same height as her he weighed very little and Tonks wondered about his eating habits.

As she was walking towards the stairs, she was grabbed from behind and spun around, barely managing to keep her balance and hold Harry up at the same time.

"Who are you to come into MY house uninvited and presume that that boy be treated for his injuries!" Tonks watched the fat man, she thought he was Harry's uncle, practically scream at her.

She then realized who had done this to Harry. With an awestruck expression, she whispered to Vernon, yes that was his name, "How could you do this to your own flesh and blood? How could you do this to Harry?" She was incredulous. How could anyone that knew who Harry was, treat him like such an underling to be beaten whenever they did something wrong.

While Vernon was confused about the response he received, he paid it no mind telling this _freak_, "I will do whatever I deem necessary to my own flesh and blood, speaking of which, give him back to me, I haven't finished from before!"

Quickly realizing that this was an overly aggressive muggle, Tonks anger flared up. "How dare you demand that I return Harry Potter, your nephew, to you so that you can finish his beating. You make me sick, you fat piece of shit!" Tonks spat at Vernon.

This was the final straw for Uncle Vernon, he drew back his hand and smacked Tonks across the face. Already unstable, Tonks fell to the floor with Harry on top of her.

"I will not be insulted in my own house by the likes of you, wench!"

Waking from the fall to the ground yet again, Harry surmised what had happened. His anger roared to life when he realized that his uncle had not only insulted Tonks, he had also attacked her in cold blood. Harry rose with speed he didn't know that he had and held the magnificent sword to his uncle's throat before another word could be said.

"Apologize, uncle." Harry practically spat at his uncle.

Vernon was about to reprimand his nephew with a few choice words when he noticed his eyes. Those eyes were not what they had been a short year ago, no, these eyes were not of a child, but of a man. While he was wondering what could have caused such a change, he noticed something else. Harry's eyes were not their normal green, they were a much darker green than just seconds before. Now Vernon was well and truly mystified, what could have caused all these things.

His thoughts were violently interrupted when Harry prodded him with his sword.

Feeling the blood drip down his neck he made a quick and insincere apology and Harry let go of a breath that he hadn't that he had been holding. Turning to Tonks, he offered her a hand up. What he saw shocked him. Tonks was staring at him with badly disguised awe in her eyes. Before Harry could


	3. Victory is mine

"Did you hear me boy?"

Harry snapped out of his reverie. The sword was still trying to get him to kill the man standing in front of him. Then a quote from several years ago, from a Weasley of all people, popped into his mind. _"Don't ever trust anything if you can't see where it keeps its brain,"_ despite the absurdity of the statement at that time, it now had a place in the forefronts of Harry's mind. This led him to think of Riddle's diary. All color left his face when he realized that the sword in his hand and the diary he destroyed so many years ago was very much alike.

"Harry?" Tonks broke in. She had watched emotions pass onto and off of his face for a few minutes before it settled on one of them. While completely understandable in this situation, she knew that he had gone through too many things to be scared of his uncle. That was what worried her. When the color drained from his face she became worried, and then when she saw the look of abject horror on his face, she became frightened for him.

"Tonks, we should go up to my room now so that you can fix me up," Harry was almost pleading at this point.

"Didn't you hear me boy? You don't give any orders around this house do you got it?" his uncle laid one of his meaty palms on Harry's shoulders as he was turning. Before anyone else could move, Harry spun with the sword up and sliced off four of his uncles five fingers. For a while everyone just stared at what had happened, and then Tonks burst into action: stupefying all muggles present and repairing Vernon's hand so that it again looked and acted normal.

She then turned to Harry with a raised eyebrow. He looked to be in more shock than anyone else at the moment and for a while she wasn't even sure that he was breathing.

"Oh my god, what have I done?" Harry questioned himself more than anyone else. He hadn't even realized it, but he had given into the blades wishes, maybe not completely, but that could have been an accident because he was not very gifted with a sword or any blade for that matter.

Tonks noted the look of self-doubt on Harry's face and quickly moved to comfort him. "Ssh, its okay, everything's fine. No harm no foul they always say," Tonks whispered into his ear. When she went to hug him, she remembered that the muggles still needed to be taken care of. Turning back to them, she obliviated that particular memory replacing it with one of a nonchalant day when Harry returned, leaving in the threat from the order of the Phoenix. Turning to Harry she saw him wobble and he would have fallen if not for her quickly moving to catch him.

"Why don't we go get you cleaned up shall we?" she spoke. She proceeded to then head up the stairs and into Harry's room. What she saw shocked her almost as much as her entering to see a bleeding Harry. His room was tiny, barely large enough for the bed, if you could call it that, sitting in the corner of the room. Making her way to the bed, she realized that his room was very clean, almost obsessively for a teenage male. She made a mental note to ask him about that later. The moan of pain brought her back to the present time, and she laid Harry down onto his bed. She did a battlefield check for his injuries; he had a gash on the back of his head, along with a cut above his left eye and a broken shoulder that was swelling rapidly. Using what little knowledge of healing magic she had, Tonks did her best to fix Harry's injuries and relieve his pain. The release of tension in his muscles told her that she had done enough for now.

While he was resting, Tonks took a good look at the person lying in front of her. She took it all in, as much detail as she possibly could, and realized that he was handsome in his own way. The short, messy black hair that just covered up his famous scar, the glasses, the thin cheeks, which seemed to have sunk since last Christmas, and his lanky body. Then her eyes fell on the sword. Something she hadn't noticed before caught her attention. The blade had runes etched into the surface. They were in some archaic language that she couldn't even come close to identifying. Then something hit her, well didn't so much hit her as moved underneath her causing her to fall to the floor with a small squeal of surprise.

Harry, reacting on instinct, instantly brought his wand up on the unknown intruder, a curse on the tip of his tongue.

"Harry! Harry, calm down. It's only me alright?" Tonks moved to assuage his fears.

"Tonks, are you okay?" Harry was a little frightened that he might have hurt and angered her; after all, forgetting that a woman is in your house or sitting on your bed, especially sitting on your bed, is quite the insult, not to mention the fact that he almost cursed her a little while ago.

"I'll be fine if you stop pointing your wand at my face and I can stand up," she answered.

Harry quickly lowered his wand and ashamedly stood to help Tonks back up to her feet. Only, when he tried to lift with his left shoulder, pain shot throughout the entire arm and forced him to lie back down.

Tonks cursed her bad charms work and rose to help Harry with his arm. "Don't try that again okay lover boy?"

Though the room wasn't very well lit, Tonks could tell that Harry was blushing and cracked a smile. "One of the most popular teens in the entire history of the wizarding world can't be called a simple nickname without blushing? Why, that will just not do. We will have to take care of that together won't we Harry dear?" the jibes she tossed at him just deepened his blush causing her to break out in laughter at the sight of Harry Potter, the-boy-who-lived, blushing. Harry mumbled something about bloody women and then realized that he could return the favor.

"Well Tonks, it appears you get your way no matter what," he said.

Tonks was confused by this response and didn't like the look in his eyes but decided to ask anyway, "Why do you say that?"

Triumphantly, Harry returned fire, "Because this moment you got here you wanted to get in my room and it appears you've finally done it."

It was Tonks' turn to blush though inside she was quietly celebrating the fact that Harry was flirting with her, he may not realize it, but he was flirting nonetheless.

"Harry, my dear, with flattery like that, it's amazing that you don't have more women up here with you."

When Harry hung his head in defeat she smiled and thought to herself _"Victory is mine"_


	4. The sword of balance

"Tonks, as much as I like you sitting in my lap, I must insist that you move,"

Not expecting a sneak attack, she looked at the young man underneath her with a shocked expression. After recovering from the moment of shock, she slid off of his lap for the second time that night, allowing Harry to sit up. This was accomplished with slow effort and a small hiss of pain on Harry's part.

"So Tonks, what are you doing at my house?" the question was straightforward and to the point and Tonks found that she couldn't answer in the same way.

"Well, I had to make sure that that fat muggle didn't do anything stupid like what he did downstairs," while part truth, their was still her secret that she wouldn't tell him… not yet at least.

"I'd say that was a good decision on your part as just a few minutes ago I was lying downstairs with a broken shoulder-blade, a few minor cuts, and maybe a minor concussion,"

The way he just seemed to joke about it made Tonks suspect that this may not have been the first encounter that Harry had with his uncle. Deciding to continue her inventory of the night, before she arrived that is, she asked, "Where did you get that magnificent sword that's in your hand?"

Harry picked it up to get a better look at it and noticed something unusual. The blood from Vernon's fingers was gone without a trace like it had never been there at all. "To tell you the truth Tonks, I have absolutely no idea. I was just having a shouting match with my uncle when it appeared in my hand. Needless to say my entire family was shocked to say nothing of me."

Tonks' jaw dropped. She hadn't even heard of the ability to call items out of nowhere, and she was pretty sure that he hadn't created it; it was too wonderful of a blade for something like that to happen. "You're saying that it just appeared in your hand without any reason as to why? How can that be possible?" she was asking herself more than Harry at the moment.

Harry scrunched up his face in concentration and then said, "Well I was thinking about all the things that Dumbledore didn't tell me and I realized that if I'm ever going to make it out of this war alive, then not only do I need to train, I also need the truth from everybody around me, that way there won't be any surprises like with Sir-"at this point Harry's voice cut out. He just couldn't talk about his godfather so soon after his death. When he looked up at Tonks he realized that she was crying. For a second he was confused, but then it all became clear to him. Sirius had said something about him being close to Tonks when they were kids. Not understanding what he was doing, Harry stood up and pulled Tonks into a soft and consoling hug. She momentarily resisted, but then gave in entirely, crying for a long while on Harry's shoulder. After about a half hour of this, she chuckled into his shoulder. Bewildered, he pulled her back to get a good look at her.

She just looked at him and said, "I'm supposed to be the strong adult and help you through this traumatic time in your life, and what do you do, you give me a shoulder to cry on."

Harry didn't exactly know what to say to this and did his best impression of a goldfish thus making Tonks burst out into laughter.

"Harry, you didn't do anything wrong. You don't have to explain yourself. In fact, I think It's kind of endearing that you would let little old me cry on your shoulder when you're the one that just got the shit kicked out him by his uncle," her old playfulness had returned in full force it seems.

"Yeah well, I'm used to that by now. I mean, if you look at it the right way, you could say that these beatings were just practice until I entered the wizarding world," Harry added with some dark humor. "There have been more times than I can count where I've woken up in the hospital wing instead of my bed in the dormitory, I've gotten so used to being there that I swear, Poppy has gotten me a special goblet with my name on it."

This sent Tonks into gales of laughter and she couldn't stop for a good long while. "You have no idea how good it feels to laugh like that, it's been so long since I've actually had a good enough reason," she stated after her mirth had finally subsided. "Returning to the present for a time, where am I going to sleep?"

Harry was momentarily dumbstruck barely able to form the conscious thought to say, "What?"

Tonks adopted a look of mock hurt on her face when Harry said this, "Why Harry, I never thought that you could be so inconsiderate of another person's feelings. You almost made me cry," accompanied by her finger trailing down her cheek with that bloody pouting look that makes everyone feel like they did something wrong, "That you could forget about my needs like that makes me wonder if it was a good idea to sleep in your room."

Realizing that she was teasing him he decided to return fire, "Well Tonks you could always sleep in my bed with me," what he saw on her face was completely unexpected. She looked almost giddy at the thought until she noticed that he was staring at her.

Well, the show must go on, "But it's so small, we won't be able to do anything at all in it." She got what she was looking for as a blush crossed Harry's face. "Oh, fine. I'll just transfigure it to make it larger alright?"

This got an acceptable nod from Harry and without any ado she began the spell. Though simple enough, it took a lot of magic for something to stay transfigured for extended periods of time. Harry knew this and decided that he didn't ever want to get in a duel with Tonks if he could help it.

When the bed was done expanding, Harry immediately began to strip down to his boxers. The only problem was that he had forgotten about the sword and the wand that he held in his hands. He ended up being a tangled mess and ultimately, in his struggle against the clothing, fell backwards onto the floor with a soft thud. Tonks again burst out into laughter after seeing Harry struggle so hard against something so simple as undressing. When he finally completed undressing, Tonks let out a little gasp at the sight of him. She had thought that he might be like any normal teenager with just the barest amount of fat on his bones, but what she saw and what she thought were two very different things. Harry Potter was packed with lean muscle without an ounce of fat on his lean frame. She didn't know this, but it was due mainly in part to the chores and the starvation that his _family_ always put him through during the summer. She did her best to collect herself before Harry saw her or she wouldn't here the end of it. When Harry disentangled himself from everything that was adorning his frame he looked up to see Tonks already in her night clothes. This included a t-shirt and some short shorts, both pink to match her hair, and for a while Harry was too caught up in looking at her that he didn't notice her sizing him up at the same time. Hedwig noticed though and wasn't sure that she approved, but like most people, she couldn't help but wish that Harry was happy. Usually that involved him giving her treats and petting her (figure that one out) and so, she hooted her disappointment at getting no attention as of yet.

Both people in the room instantly had their wands trained on the Hedwig's cage and then relaxed. Realizing how silly the both of them must have seemed, to be startled by an owl's hoot, Harry let out a belly laugh. Tonks just looked at him with a questioning look for a little while and then figured out what he was laughing at. Instead of rolling on the ground laughing like Harry, she just let a satisfied smile creep onto her features at the sight of him helplessly laughing.

"Well?"

Harry's laughing stopped but there were tears running down his cheeks from mirth and he was still lightly chuckling, "Well what?"

Tonks sighed in mock impatience and just nodded towards Hedwig.

Following her line of sight, Harry ended up running over to let Hedwig out. When he realized that he had forgotten to grab her treats out of his trunk, he just willed them there and they appeared. Too caught up to understand what he had just done, he unlocked Hedwig's cage, gave her a treat and then walked over and opened up the window to let her fly. She gave a hoot of appreciation, flew to Harry's shoulder, gave his ear a playful nip, and then took off into the dark of night to go hunting.

Tonks though, had not missed the fact that a box of owl treats had appeared out of nowhere into Harry's hand accompanied by a surge of magical power from Harry's core. She, of course, could do it, but with a lot of concentration, and I mean _a lot _of concentration, and she could only summon small things like a teapot or… a box of owl treats. Shaking her head, she decided to put this ever increasing amount of knowledge away as one more thing to ask him about.

"Are you going to join me Tonks or are you just going to stand there staring at me?" Apparently, while she had been lost in thought, Harry had lied down onto the bed and was waiting for her to accompany him before he became comfortable. He had an odd feeling that that wouldn't be too hard with a beautiful woman sleeping in the same bed as him, his _manhood_ just inches away from her nether regions, so _no_, Harry Potter would have no trouble getting to sleep that night.

Tonks' face heated up and her heart started beating fast again, just like it always did when Harry flirted with her. Then a dark smile crept onto her face and she moved sexily over to the bed, or so she hoped, and laid down, making an extra effort to wiggle her bum into him as she got comfortable. Harry's groan was all the acknowledgement was all that was needed to confirm her victory yet again. _Oh Harry,_ she thought to herself, _you are out of your class when it comes to flirting._ Then he did something completely unexpected. He wrapped his arm around her waist and drew her close to him as he too became comfortable. _Dammit, he wasn't supposed to work up the nerve to do that to me for a while yet, oh well. Not like I'm gonna stop it, it just feels so damn good._ They both fell to sleep in those exact positions, though what the morning would bring is unknown.

As predicted, the morning brought a pleasant surprise for both of Harry's bed occupants.

Harry awoke feeling better than he had in a long time. As he tried to stretch, he realized why. His right arm was pinned underneath her leaving him unable to stretch while his left was, well, holding onto Tonks' thigh like it was the best thing ever invented. Which for a hormone driven teenager, it was.

Harry tried to frantically find a way to get himself out of trouble when Tonks lashed out with her left arm in a stretch whacking him right in the face. Auror instincts taking over, Tonks threw herself out of bed and aimed her wand at the disoriented Harry Potter. For a while she was dumbfounded, and then the previous night came back to her, the entrance, the slap, Harry's new sword, the fight, and of course the falling to sleep in the arms of Harry Potter himself. Though he didn't realize it, which was one of the most dreamed about fantasies for witches across the U.K. Well, that and waking up in those arms day after day (after day) to a smiling and content Harry Potter.

Though slightly confused, Harry was glad that the embarrassing situation was avoided, for the moment. He tried, in vain, to focus on Tonks and only ended up becoming dizzy. Finally, he just decided to let his eyes figure themselves out before he tried to do anything else. When he could see straight without any focus, Harry saw Tonks standing with her wand pointing right at his chest. Without thinking, Harry just called out for protection in his mind. Surprisingly, his, and he had no doubt that it was his, sword came to his call in a guard position. To say nothing, both parties were shocked into speechlessness. Harry, that the sword could apparently hear him, and Tonks that Harry was holding the sword as if he had known how to for his entire life, that part scared her more than she would like to admit, and apparently, she had yet another thing to quiz Harry on when they had time.

Harry was the first to recover from his shock and again without a thought, returned it to its scabbard. Harry did a double take at this. It wasn't that the sword was glamorous, quite the opposite actually, it was made of some dark material that seemed to just suck in the light, like it was a never ending pit of darkness. Harry decided to have a talk with his new sword later when he was alone. After all, it had done some unusual things in the past night, why wouldn't it be able to talk to him? He could've sworn that it had told him to kill his uncle Vernon last night anyway. Harry's face paled at the memories of last night. He had chopped off his uncle's fingers, true they had been repaired as good as new, but that wasn't the point. The only reason he hadn't killed him was because his thinking was a little fuzzy and he didn't know how to use a sword all that well. Doesn't that make me as bad as a murderer? I had the intent, the malice, the will, and of course, the ability to do it, but it was just an accident that Vernon didn't die the other night. What would've happened if I had killed him? Questions like these arose in multitudes one after another leaving Harry no time to answer them when one stood out among the hundreds. Does she think I am a murderer? This last question forced him to look into the eyes of a very confused Tonks. She had seen him vanish the sword (how does he do that?) when she saw his face lose all color and turn away from her. When he looked back up to her, she could see the turmoil on his face and understood what he was afraid of.

"Harry," this drew Harry's complete attention to her, "I don't think that you're a killer, I just think that you're a survivor."

Obvious relief flooded onto his face when he crossed the tiny space between them to give her an unexpected hug in silent thanks. Tonks just pushed him back and smiled at him.

"Now Harry, you should probably put some clothes on before you embarrass yourself," Tonks jab brought Harry back to reality. He quickly looked down and a blush smothered his face in red as he grabbed some clothes and headed out of the room, muttering something about visiting the loo.

Tonks laughed lightly at Harry's expense for a little bit and then the mirth suddenly died as she looked at the mysterious sword.

Yes it had probably saved Harry's life the other night, but does that make it good? This question, along with others like "what is it?" and "where'd it come from?" were at the top of her to know list. As she was speculating Harry walked back into the room. _God, he looks even better wet, _she thought to herself as she stared at his body.

"Okay, now it's your turn," Harry stated as though it were the simplest fact in the world.

Tonks blinked and then asked, "For what?" she was well and truly confused at this moment.

Harry smirked and answered, "Well, since you got to see my front, doesn't that mean that I get to see yours? At least, I think that's how this game works."

Tonks just stared for a second and then comprehension dawned on her as some things clicked in her mind. The blush that followed put Harry's earlier one to shame and he smiled in victory.

Deciding that they had better get ready, Harry told her to go clean up, and still in a playful mood she replied, "But I thought you liked me better sweaty?"

Harry blinked once and then returned fire, "I like the fresh sweat, you know, the first time. After the second and third time, you start to smell awful."

Tonks was too shocked to speak. Then a thought crossed her mind, _God he learns fast._ Deciding to finish the battle, if not winning it, she created a pillow and threw it at him as she rushed down to the loo.

When she returned, she found Harry sitting on his bed with an empty and a full plate of food at his side with the sword resting in his hand comfortably. He seemed to be in intense concentration and just staring at it.

Tonks thanked him for the breakfast with a little poke at how considerate he was and she got… absolutely no response. Shrugging her shoulders she started to wolf down the food Harry had prepared for her.

When Harry finally came from his trancelike state, he looked over to see Tonks sitting there calmly and jumped about two inches off of the bed, causing him to fall onto the floor. Tonks started laughing realizing quickly that you can't eat and laugh at the same time without some consequences, hers being a coughing fit to clear her airways.

When she had stopped coughing, and when Harry had stood back up, she asked, "What were you doing that you didn't notice little ole me walk into the room?" this entire sentence was accompanied by a small pout on her part.

Harry all of a sudden, and for no reason whatsoever, and started to blush. Then he said, "Well, you're going to think I'm crazy if I tell you."

When she realized how important that this was, all evidence of the playful Tonks' disappeared and only Tonks the auror remained. "No I won't Harry, you can trust me."

While her words were simple, the emotion behind them gave Harry pause. When he looked at Tonks, he knew that she was telling the truth. Then all of the tension left his body as he relaxed and decided to tell her everything, but on one condition.

"Tonks, what I am about to tell you, nobody has known for centuries and so I must ask for your witches oath that you will never tell anyone about it."

When she opened her mouth to speak, he cut her off saying, "Especially Dumbledore, if he knew what I now have in my possession, he would immediately whisk it away for _my own safety_." He ended with a sneer and while Tonks was mystified as to how she knew what he was going to ask, she closed her mouth when she saw the look on his face. Another thing for her to ask him about over her stay… maybe.

Tonks finally nodded and recited the words, "I, Nymphadora Tonks, do swear on my magic that if I ever repeat the words that are about to spoken to me, that magic may become, not only unusable, but also a poison that will kill me slowly and painfully."

Harry nearly whistled at that. The only thing that stopped him was the seriousness of the situation. She wasn't going to tell anyone about their talk now that was for sure.

Harry recited his acceptance of the oath and began the history lesson.

"You probably don't know what this sword is because it hasn't been seen in over a millennium, and even then it was thought just a myth, a childhood fairytale to frighten little children you may have heard the modern version of that story, it's called the boogeyman." She was a little worried about the little children thing but decided to not interrupt Harry's story. Sensing no interruption forthcoming, Harry continued, "While that story blew this blades powers way out of proportion, there is at least a little truth to it. This blades purpose was to even out the world so that no one faction became too powerful and end the entire world," seeing her confused, he explained, "imagine that it's light outside, when you walk you notice all the shadows around you, thus the light creates the dark. Now the opposite is also true. Without any light, there can be no life because no one can see and nothing can grow thus creating a need for the light. The only problem is that sometimes one side comes perilously close to becoming all consuming without realizing what they are doing and this blade comes to help…sometimes."  
"Sometimes? Why only sometimes?"

"Well, another purpose for the sword and just as important as the balancing act, is that of the finding out the truth. The only way that it will ever answer a person's call is for that person to be lied to about their life or more often than not, in my case it was both," that same sneer crossed his face, "but I'm getting off the subject. It only comes to a person when they need or want the truth badly enough to kill for it. It actually gives them the power to do just that."

A look of shock passed across her face, that was to be expected, but the quizzical look that followed was not. Harry arched an eyebrow and continued.

"The blade teaches its user how to wield it in hand-to-hand combat and gives them the ability to learn the darker side of magic if they don't already have the aptitude for it, which I do."

Tonks was at a loss for words at the expression on Harry's face but then the question that had been burning in the back of her mind ever since he had started this lecture sprang forth and blew away her other concerns. It was a simple, "How?"

It seemed that Harry had known that this particular question was going to pop up sooner or later as a sour look crushed the mysterious one. Of course, that didn't make it any easier for him to answer it. He carefully choose his words and began, "The sword leaves a mark in every time that it chooses to enter and its wielder at the time does the same to it. After a while, it became what we would call a _sentient being_. It also gleaned all the information it could from its owners mind."

The way he said it so offhandedly made Tonks relax, but then the words suddenly hit her and she got a crick in her neck from how fast she turned it. "You mean to tell me that that sword can actually think?"

The way her eyes were popping out of her skull and her mouth was hanging open; Harry knew that she was taking this the wrong way. He let out a sigh and explained, "In a sense yes, but it's completely subservient to its wielder and if another picks it up, it knows and will reject that person no matter what."

Though she was still unconvinced, she decided to trust Harry on this one. A silent shrug and a rubbing of her neck let Harry know that it was okay if he was okay with it and that he should continue.

Relief washed through him and he did, continue, that is, "While the sword is powerful, it can't stop the killing curse or any of the other unforgivables, but it teaches you all that you may need to know to win your battles, even though the spells are a bit outdated, that doesn't mean they won't work, in fact, they should probably work better than normal ones because nobody will know how to block them."

"What kind of spells?"

This was a tricky area to convince anyone of, especially an auror in the employ of a very powerful headmaster of a certain wizarding school. "Some of the light ones like simple healing spells, a bunch of shields, and even a few travel spells like the _portus_ spell," Tonks was shocked, the portkey spell couldn't be found anywhere and wasn't taught in any schools like Hogwarts, well, any with a good reputation for not teaching the dark arts, "a couple of the neutral spells like the full body bind and stupefy and multiple nastier versions of those two along with some mixes of the two."

Tonks was wary of this question, but asked it anyway, "And what about the dark spells?"

Harry sucked in a breath and focused his mind. This, after all was the hardest part of all. "Well, I prefer to call them more like gray spells."

"Okay, what are they?"

Harry held up his hands and asked, "Wait for me to finish with spells that it has taught me already before you say anything, okay?" with her nod, he continued, "Well there are the standard bone spells, like the bone breaker and exploder, there are some fleshy ones, like the shredder and inflamer, that's a nasty one, there are blood spells, like the boiler and the diluter, of course the fire curses, like fireball and some mixes between bludgeoning and burning spells, and of course, the unforgivables."

Tonks had become more and more anxious as the list of spells grew, some of those weren't even heard of, and when Harry mentioned the unforgivables, she nearly lost it then and there, but respecting the fact that Harry had gone through in five years what most wizards and witches didn't go through in a lifetime, she just swallowed and asked, "Anything else?" This was more a desperate plea than a question, she was just hoping that it couldn't get any worse than it already was, could it?

Harry was amazed at the restraint that Tonks was displaying and regretted having to play his two last cards. "Only two," as if saying this could help with her fears even though she nearly passed out at the flood of information from Harry, she hung on to the end.

"And they are?"

Harry scratched his chin and mumbled something that Tonks couldn't make out.

"What was that Harry?"

He took a deep breath and said in a clear voice, "It taught me how to summon devils and angels for one," he had to stop there for Tonks had finally giving in and fainted.

After Harry had successfully returned Tonks to the conscious world, he played the last card and the one that just might send her running from his house in fear, "I'm also part shade now."

Tonks was at a loss for words again that day and decided to take her only way out. Of course, she couldn't abandon Harry, so she fainted… again.


	5. What's a shade?

Harry sighed and decided on what to do. He didn't want to wake Tonks because that would lead to a lot of questions that he didn't feel like answering at the moment. "_Might as well figure out what's wrong with me," _he thought to himself. The list was surprisingly short for how much pain he was feeling at the moment. His arm was still a little sore so he decided against using it for the time being. He was also a bit light headed which put any running out of the question, not like they would let him leave the house anyway. What did that leave in the ways of physical activity, hmm… not much. Since I can't use my body, why don't I check out my magical abilities?

He then proceeded to dive into his trunk in a search for his school books. The best way to improve would be to actually take a page out of Hermione's book and study. When he was finished in his trunk, he had removed most of the books that he had acquired over the years. Quirrel, Gilderoy, and Umbridge didn't really count as teachers, and, sadly, care of magical creatures wasn't going to help him much in the coming war.

Since potions was his worst subject (mostly because of Snape), he rationalized that it would be a good idea for him to take a look at those books in an effort to improve his skills in that area. Grabbing his first year potions book from among the pile, Harry began the quest of relearning his schooling.

A little while later, Harry noticed some very disturbing things, to him at least. The first was that he had understood all of what he read. The second was that he had improved on some of the basic potions that he had read about, and finally, he remembered what he read, every single word in perfect order.

While these facts scared the shit out of him, he had more important problems, such as the awaking beauty that was lying on the bed behind him.

When Tonks woke up, she was confused at first. Questions buzzed through her mind, the most prominent being, "_Where am I?" _All thoughts left her mind as she saw the slim, green-eyed, black-haired teenager sitting in front of her, shoved aside by one word, Shade.

Tonks instincts told her to run, after all, she had only heard bad things about shades, such as the ability to control shadows, or the more common rumors of them being aggressive in an almost, bestial way. Those were some of the nicer ones, just thinking of the other ones made her shiver.

Her musings were cut short as she heard a sigh from the only other person in the room. She looked up to see a hurt and saddened Harry sitting in front of the bed with those green eyes of his. She suddenly felt very ashamed of her actions. With a lowered head, she slowly returned to Harry's side. Still avoiding Harry's gaze, she said a soft apology and then Harry grabbed her chin to look into her eyes. After a while, he gave a nod as though he saw that she meant it and asked what the problem was.

"Well, I've heard some nasty rumors about shades and since I can't tell the truth from fiction, I tried to get as far away from you as possible," if Harry didn't think she gave an honest apology earlier, the way she said that sentence sure helped.

"Well, I'll let you ask me some questions about what I'm becoming and I'll do my best to answer you," he didn't know everything about his people…yet.

"Let's start with the basics such as what are you, what's a shade, and what can you do?" she had become a student again just learning as much as she could.

"Like I said before, I'm a shade, but there's more to a shade than most people thinks. For example, there are actually three types of shades; the first being the half-shade. These are just beginning their life as a shade. As time goes on, their powers will grow and they will become more noticeable as shades. Their skin will darken and most of them will get yellow eyes, it is said that the closer a shade's eye color to its original eye color, the more powerful it is. Also, they will come into more abilities until they reach full shade. The second stage of a shade is that of full shade. This stage doesn't gain any more abilities, but the abilities that they have will become more powerful and their skin should be completely black by now. This is also the stage where the most physical changes occur. They are usually linked to the personality of that person and are almost always different. For example, some of the more ruthless of shades will grow horns and spikes for hand-to-hand combat. Some of them even gain gills so that they can breathe underwater, but they keep their lungs so that they can still function above water, at least, most of them do. The final stage for a shade is hardly ever reached, it only happens to extremely powerful shades that have been around for a while, for a shade, that's about a century. It is thought to be very painful, as all the enhancements that they have gained throughout the years get sucked into their body, but they can still use them, they just have to focus to bring them out. This doesn't include their skin color or their eyes, though. Even if it is painful, it is also supposed to give a huge power boost and some choice skills, like a sixth sense or mage sight, that's where they can see magic and how it works like no one else," this monologue was exhausting to say the least, but he had to finish up his explanation before she could ask more questions, "As for what I can do, right now, absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, or at least I think so."

Tonks had paid very close attention to Harry's little, if you could call it that, speech and she was amazed to hear that a lot of things would be happening to Harry in a very short time. More amazing was the fact that he seemed almost okay with this fact.

When she realized that he was looking at her, she said, so softly that Harry had to almost strain to hear it, "I'm sorry Harry. My reaction was normal and you can expect it in your foreseeable future, at least in the magical world, because there are at least a few horrendous stories about shades that are circulating at the moment."

Harry sighed and replied, "I was afraid of that."

Tonks just stared at him for a moment. This boy, no man that sat in front of her, that had just last night saved her from his uncle seemed to be defeated at the thought that people would treat him with such fear. This man that had stared down Voldemort, had killed a basilisk, was triwizard champion, and had infiltrated the department of mysteries, was defeated at the thought of how people would react to him now.

"Snap out of it, you have done enough things to realize that public opinion of you hasn't been really high anyway, last year should have proved it to you if nothing else, and besides, you have stared down you-know-who and you're still here, what's a little bad press going to do to you?"

Her words seemed to help Harry, at least a little bit, so he leaned forward and gave her a hug. When he pulled back he said, "Thanks Tonks, that's just what I needed right now."

Tonks noticed how close they were and was about to act on her feelings by snogging Harry's lights out when the doorbell rang.

Harry snapped his head in the direction of the ring because nothing good ever came from the doorbell ringing, and decided to investigate.

Standing up, Harry made his way to the door and, upon opening it, heard his uncle yell his name, or what counted for it in this house. He was just about to step onto the stairwell when he remembered his sword. He quickly grabbed it along with the sheath that had appeared overnight, and strapped them on. Satisfied, he made his way downstairs. The sight that greeted him filled him with an almost feral anger. The one person that was standing in front of the open door was the cause of all of his pain over his entire life was standing within ten feet of Harry and he couldn't do anything about it.

Dumbledore was at number 4 Privet Drive.


	6. That damn boy

Disclaimer: I don't own characters and such, just the plot, at least the voices in my head tell me so.

Note: Will be a Dumbledore hating story. Don't like it, to bad, deal with it.

From Dumbledores point of view, as well as the Dursley family because they had been obliviated, Harry Potter was full of surprises. First, he showed hints of anger that looked almost primal, Dumbledore had witnessed some of this unleashed fury earlier in the year, and for some strange reason, seemed to give Harry a darker skin tone. Second, there was an unknown woman standing behind Harry with a frightened look on her face that looked oddly familiar to Dumbledore, but he shrugged it away as an old man's memory failing him. Third, and most dramatic, was the sword that sat comfortably at his hip. Dumbledore was most curios as to what this sword was and where it had come from and was about to question it, but Vernon chimed in his normal, cheerful self.

"Where'd you get that sword boy?" greed was obvious in his beady little eyes and when Harry noticed it, he seemed to get even angrier than he was before, if that was possible.

"Vernon, don't you dare try to take this sword from me, secretly or by force, for if you do, I will kill you in the most horrendous was that I can think of," the tone of voice in which Harry said this gave Dumbledore goose bumps, and for the first time in a long while, Dumbledore felt fear.

Vernon's rebuttal was cut short by Petunia of all people, "How dare you threaten us like that you little freak! We took you in, gave you a roof over your head, fed and clothed you and how do you repay us? You threaten to kill us if we deem to take what should rightfully belong to us, since you have never earned your keep in any way."

This was, apparently, the wrong thing to say, as Harry seemed to seethe, and then a very odd thing happened, Harry became emotionless. Almost as if he was the now at the eye of the storm of what were his emotions and said, "I won't even respond to your obvious lies, _Petunia_."

Now even Vernon was picking up on the danger that he might have put his family into as the small shadows given off by Harry and his accomplice seemed to stretch and grow as if they now had a will of their own and tried to do one of the stupidest things he had ever thought of, he threatened Harry, "Boy! How dare you call your loving and kind aunt a liar! You're going to get it now, Dudley, fetch the 2 by-" he was cut off by his own shadow that had just covered his mouth and incapacitated him without anybody noticing. Vernon just stared in horror as his family was forced to their knees by their own shadows.

When Dumbledore finally shook off his shock, he did the only thing he could think of, stun Harry. As the red beam of light flew at the young, but powerful, man in front of him, Harry looked at him and took a step forward. While Dumbledore was contemplating this most absurd of moves, Harry seemed to fall into the floor without stopping. The spell kept going even though it had missed its initial target, it could still stun the unknown female. This idea was quickly swept aside as the person in question threw up a magical shield that was made specifically to block stunners and it dissipated.

Dumbledore was half-crazed now. Where had that blasted boy gone? The answer wasn't what he wanted or expected as the sword that was previously strapped to Harry's hip was now just inches from Dumbledore' throat.

"Don't move," the command was completely unneeded as he had no intention whatsoever of moving a single muscle at the moment. He was even contemplating whether he should breath or not when a second command was heard from Harry, "Drop your wand." He hesitantly did so to make it appear that he didn't have a back-up one when the mysterious person still on the stairs summoned all other things that could be used as weapons and also the wand on the floor.

When he was satisfied, Harry returned the sword to its sheath, commanded his shadow creatures to knock out the Dursley family and put them in their respective rooms, and asked Dumbledore to join him in the sitting room, though his tone was anything but kind.

Ever trying to be impressive, Dumbledore seemed to glide smoothly into the adjacent room as if he was still in control of this meeting. This thought was put to a quick and devastating death when Harry shadow stepped right into the room and made sat down on the couch. Seeing as how there was no place for him to sit, the mystery woman was sitting in the armchair -when did she get there? - Dumbledore made as if to conjure the chintz armchairs he so liked when he realized he had no wand. Seeing no alternative, Dumbledore sat down on the floor, when he looked up and saw the smirk on Harry's face, he knew this wasn't going to be a pleasant meeting, for him at least.

"So, Dumbledore, what brings you to my pleasant abode?" Tonks knew by the way he said pleasant that his life hear was anything but.

"Harry, I've come to tell some crucial things for your safety," seeing no problems so far, he continued, "such as a constant guard, no mail, the confiscation of your wand-"

This last part was met by a burst of outrage, "My wand! No, I won't have it." His emphasis on I made sure that all involved remembered who was really in charge of this meeting.

Dumbledore, however, continued, "Yes, your wand. If you put up resistance, we will have to take it from you by force."

"You wouldn't." It was more statement than anything else, but they were the first words that Dumbledore had heard from the mystery woman.

Dumbledore rested his full gaze on the woman and asked, "Why not?"

This was met by a look of fierce concentration and the face changing into the more recognizable one of Nymphadora Tonks, "Because you are in the presence of an auror and I won't allow it."

Dumbledore although surprised, hid it well; "Nymphadora my dear, I don't seem to recall bringing you to Harry's house?" it wasn't really a statement, more a question as to how and when she had arrived here.

"It doesn't matter," this time Harry spoke up, "If not for her, than I might have been dead last night and we wouldn't be having this conversation. I owe her my life."

The way that Dumbledore just seemed to shrug off the fact that Harry had almost died the night before made Harry suspicious of him. Questions plagued his mind for a short time concerning whether he even cared about Harry, or was just using him to defeat Voldemort.

"Still, I do not believe that she should be here with you right now, and I am therefore going to insist that you return to headquarters and wait for further instructions from me," Dumbledore still refused to believe that he may no longer have any control over Harry, and the way that he just casually ignored Harry's earlier comments made his blood boil.

Tonks came to her own defense this time by saying, "I would much rather stay here with Harry to protect him from his family, as long as it's okay with him that is."

Dumbledore was silently furious at this statement. How dare a person not a fifth his own age deny him, however, he must remain calm and not show any emotion. "Nymphadora," he began, "I really must insist that you return to Grimmauld place and leave Harry to grieve Sirius' passing."

This got the intended reaction of sadness from the girl, but it was an entirely different story on Harry's part, "Don't you dare to presume that you can order her to leave this place against her will, _Albus_. If you hadn't realized, Tonks was also family to the late Sirius Black, as much as, if not more so than me. She has as much reason to grieve as I do, again if not more. I also believe that a grief-stricken person should not be alone against their wishes as having someone to tell your problems to almost always helps, at least in my experience, and let me tell you, I have a decent amount of experience."

While the fact that he had used his first name annoyed Dumbledore to a certain extent, the fire in Harry's eyes scared Dumbledore more than he would like to admit and so he didn't realize that Harry's skin had darkened the tiniest bit, but Tonks did, though she wisely kept this fact to herself until she could ask Harry what's going on.

Dumbledore sighed in defeat and moved past that certain issue, seeing it as a lost cause, "Very well then, Harry, I will allow Tonks to stay here-"

"As if you had a say in it," Harry noted.

"-but I would still very much like to have your wand," he continued as though he hadn't heard Harry's statement.

"Not this thing again," Harry sighed. When would the old man learn? "Look, Dumbledore, you're not getting my wand from me, whatever you say."

"It's for the safety of your wand."

This caught Harry's attention, "What do you mean?" he did like his wand very much after all.

"Quite a lot of magic has been used in this house, and it doesn't belong to an adult wizard, so you should be getting a letter from Mrs. Hopkirk sometime soon," Dumbledore said, though he hid his smile. Checkmate Harry.

Of all the reactions that Harry could have given, the smirk that graced his face was not at all expected, "Dumbledore, you seem to forget that I didn't use any magic and have an auror as an eyewitness to testify if I do get a message from her."

Sure enough, when the expected owl flew into the room, it flew to Harry who quickly removed it from its care, read it, then turned it over and wrote a quick note on the back before the owl could take off.

Dumbledore was floored, how could a little punk get out of that one, he thought for sure that he had him that time. "What do you mean you didn't use any magic?"

Harry was quite for a time, and then seemed to decide on something when he said, "Sorry professor, I can't tell you the answer to that question."

Dumbledore was furious, and everyone knows, anger often leads to rash decisions, especially when the angry one is extremely powerful. This was one of those times.

Dumbledore decided to get the answers with, or without, Harry's consent, and then dove into Harry's mind with Legilimency. He was surprised to find something that clashed with Snape's explanation of Harry's mind. In fact, he found the exact opposite of what he had been told.

Absolutely nothing.

Dumbledore was standing in the shadows of Harry's mind pondering how this had happened when he had told Snape to make sure that it could never happen.

Dumbledore mentally jumped when he heard a voice say, "Dumbledore, old boy, I would never think that you would utterly you protégé's mind like this. Poor form old chap." The almost cheerful way it was said just about made Dumbledore sick.

He turned around to meet the eyes of something that wasn't there. Dumbledore was confused, he could have sworn that the voice had come from behind him.

"Now really Albus, you should realize that a voice can come from anywhere it wants to be in a person's head," the voice came from in front of him this time and he noticed that it was male.

"Show yourself."

This was met by a bout of laughter, "You still think you're in control? You're in foreign territory and you have absolutely no idea what's going on, but, okay. Why not?"

The thing that appeared in front of him scared the living shit out of him.

Its skin was completely black while its eyes were a bright yellow. It was muscular but not bulky, tall but not overly so, and was scary but not ugly. It had shoulder-length black hair to match its skin. Its hands looked deadly with the spikes sticking out of them making them look like gauntlets that knights of old used to wear. The most unnerving thing were the wings.

Dear god they were big.

It had to have a wingspan of at least twelve feet.

They weren't angelic, but they weren't quite draconic either. They looked almost like they were made with a dragon in mind, but right at the end they decided to grow feathers, black feathers that is. The spikes growing out of the ends didn't help much either. All in all, it just screamed power and independence.

Dumbledore absolutely hated it.

"What are you?"

"Me? I'm a figment of your imagination, well actually Harry's, but that's not the point. I'm here and my purpose is to kick you out of my masters' mind. If you won't go quietly, then I'll just have to get nasty. Believe me, that'll be a lot of fun for me and definitely no fun for you."

"What do you mean 'your masters' mind'?"

"Can't answer that sorry, well, no I'm not really sorry at all," it seemed to be having a jolly old time at tormenting the wise and powerful Dumbledore. It was actually looking forward to kicking him out, especially if he didn't want to go peacefully.

Dumbledore was truly irked at this, this, creature standing in front of it making barely covered threats at him. He was about to blast it into oblivion when he realized something very bad for him.

He didn't have his wand.

He paled and decided that a tactical retreat might be best at the moment. The last thing he saw before he got out was the sad face of the defender of Harry's mind.

When he returned to the here and now, he found himself facing the smiling face of Harry.

"Have a nice look see?"

Dumbledore blanched and decided that he might as well move on. "Fine, you can keep your secrets," for now, he left unspoken, "but you will still not be allowed to leave the house."

Harry rolled his eyes and said, "Professor, I will leave my house if and when I choose to whether you like it or not. Now, do you have any news, or are you going to keep on telling me what I can't but will do if I feel like it?"

The rage Dumbledore was feeling at the moment was quite profound as he just couldn't win anything with Harry. He did smile when he realized that he had one thing over Harry. "Your friends will not be allowed to tell you anything of import."

Harry's mouth twitched but that was it, "Not much of a change from last year, is it. Not like it matters anymore, I'll just find out the important things by myself."

Dumbledore was befuddled. What had happened to the depressed and shy Harry Potter that had left his school less than a week ago? Just as he was about to say something Harry interrupted, "This conversation is over, I have more important things to do today. The same is true with Miss Tonks if I am correct?"

She looked at the clock above the boarded up fireplace and received a shock at the time. "You're right, Harry, I've gotta go. I'll stop by later to see how you're doing, okay?" she quickly stood up and was almost out the door when she heard him say goodbye. The crack of apparition signaled her leaving the area.

"Well professor?" he seemed to be waiting for something.

"Well what, Harry?"

He rolled his eyes and motioned towards the door with his arm. Taking his cue, Dumbledore stood and walked toward it. Hearing a cough from Harry he turned to look at him to find him holding his wand. How he had gotten it, Dumbledore would never know, but it was thrown at him with his backup one following it with a muttered explanation of, "You might need these," and then Harry was simply not there anymore.

The thoroughly freaked out Headmaster of Hogwarts quickly left Number 4 Privet Drive and apparated to Hogsmeade. The only thought going through his head was 'What happened to that damn boy?'

Request: I need help, I am thinking of making Harry an animagus but I'm not sure of the form. Any suggestions will be considered as long as there is a good reason (can't be a dragon just because it would be cool, you know stuff like that). It shouldn't clash with his personality or his way of thinking.

P.S. if you reviewed in the past week or so, my other computer isn't working so that's why I haven't replied to them. Sorry.


	7. Gone

Note: This will be a Harry/Tonks story, but they will take a while to get there as Harry has to experiment (hint hint, wink wink). Anyway, I hope you like the story so far and if you have any flames to give to my writing or my ideas, go rightahead, this is a place where writers can improve after all.

**Thought**

speech

_Mind speech_

Harry smiled to himself and made his way up to his room. He had had a lot of fun with Dumbledore, but he had things to do. The fact that Voldemort was after him was a well-known fact, not only because of that thing called pride, but also because of the prophecy as well. This thought sent rage coursing through Harry's veins and if anyone had been watching, they would have noticed the lights flicker and shrink to almost nothingness, but then, Harry had suppressed his anger in favor of a better emotion: determination.

**Well, first things first, I need to train. No ifs, ands, or buts about it,** he thought to himself. The only problem was how. He knew that a member of the Order would be guarding his house at all times, but he also knew that there were those among the order that would gladly help him train, Moody for example. But Moody wasn't an animagus, or a shade, and he didn't believe him to be a swordsman for that matter either.

Yep, Harry would definitely need help from outside the Order. Maybe a trip to Diagon Alley was due in the near future. Till then, he could practice the theory of Charms and Transfiguration, as well as finish reading his collection of books from school. Some, he didn't have any use for in the near future, such as care of magical creatures, while others he had absolutely no use for, like divination or astronomy. Just the thought of the stacks of books waiting for him in his room made him groan. Even though he knew that he should do it, that didn't make it any easier for him to finally trudge up the steps to begin the task that would surely take several hours.

Starting with the potions book he had left unfinished in his room, he made his way through his entire selection of _useful_ books. These excluding all of Lockhart's and Quirrel's books, of course, and he was infuriated that he could actually understand why a potion had to be brewed in a certain way, and why you couldn't add some ingredients in with others. Damn Snape. When Harry looked up to check the time, he was shocked to find that only a few hours had passed for him to finish reading all of his many books. He really had to figure out what was going on with him and his new abilities, maybe the sword could help.

Deciding to ask, Harry instinctively went into the trance that comes along with wielding this particular sword to have a…talk with the entity that resided in the ancient weapon. Reaching that special place of calm in his mind, and finding the specific link to his sword he traveled down the path to have his second meeting with this very powerful…thing, that he might consider a mentor later in life.

_"Shadow,_ he spoke…err thought…err, whatever, in his mind, _I would like to have a chat with you."_

The "thing" that answered his call was the creature that had protected Harry's mind earlier and spooked Dumbledore, spooked being a "light" term. (sorry, stupid pun)

_"Yes, Harry? What is it that you need?" _It responded.

Since it isn't any fun to talk with someone when you're nothing but a voice, Harry willed a room to be made in his mind for him and shadow to talk. Surprisingly, it was the Gryffindor common room, although Harry didn't seem to notice as he took a seat and gestured for Shadow to do the same.

_"Shadow,"_ he started, _"It has come to my attention that I can now do a few things that I couldn't do before and weren't supposed to be part of becoming a shade, care to explain why?"_

Shadow bowed his head, and then returned his gaze to Harry's eyes, eyes he knew would never turn yellow like all others before him, before saying, _"That, I cannot answer, though I may know of a way for you to figure that out."_

Harry was intrigued. There wasn't much that Shadow didn't know about, living a few centuries trapped inside of a sword will do that to a person, but at least he was able to give Harry a lead. _"Go on,"_ he commanded.

_"Well, in every patron's vault, there are supposedly artifact that can determine all latent abilities that a person from that family may possess, such as a Metamorph, and this artifact could be used to discover all of your "special" abilities."_ He finished with a knowing smirk at the fact that Harry would be uneasy at the fact of him standing out of the crowd in any way, although, knowing the fact that he was now a shade, he wouldn't be able to hide among the crowd for much longer.

_"What are you talking about?"_ Harry questioned, _"I'm not the patron of any family and I'm pretty sure that if I was, I would know about it."_

_"Oh?"_ shadow smirked, _"What do you think the ancient and most powerful house of Potter is?"_

Harry was nearly hysterical at this time, _"But, someone would have told me about my family…"_ here he had to stop as realization hit him like a levitated troll club. Dumbledore.

**How dare he keep something like this from me!** He thought to himself. **That old codger is going to pay big time for this one.**

Shadow was happy to see Harry meet his expectations, although he was a tad worried that the room they were currently residing in would collapse as he lost control of his emotions, indeed, there were cracks appearing in the walls and darkness started to seep in, but then Harry calmed himself with a wicked grin on his face, though the room seemed was repaired, it didn't look the same as before. It looked somehow, darker, but with the same amount of light in the room, as if the walls were made of something that sucked in light.

_"Shadow?"_ he said, "_Can you teach me to shadow walk to Gringotts?"_

Shadow was now extremely pleased with how his new pupil was forging a path for himself without anybodies help. Shadow, of course, would only be teaching Harry how to use his developing powers. _"With pleasure, milord."_

Harry decided to dismiss the fact that Shadow had called him as his "lord" as some sarcasm from the being-he still wasn't entirely sure whatit was-and jumped into his training with eagerness. After all, if he was going to undermine Dumbledore's control over him, he was going to need all the help thathe could get.

_"Since you've already done it once, it shouldn't be too hard for you to make it to the wizarding bank."_ Seeing the blank look on Harry's face he explained, _"When you captured Dumbledore remember?"_ then comprehension dawned and, if possible, Harry became even more excited at the thought of sliding through shadows as if it were the plane they now existed upon.

_"First, you have to know that there are many other planes of existence besides the one that you live on."_ Seeing Harry's nod he continued, _"To shadow-walk, you have to rip a hole into the shadow plane and just step somewhere else and rip yourself a hole back, don't worry, it doesn't have any long-term effects on either plane."_ Shadow was happy to notice the look of relief on Harry's face when he said this, '**Good,'** he thought to himself, **'He's already worried about the** **consequences on others, this bodes well for his future.'** Returning to the lesson, Shadow told Harry the next couple of stepsfor Shadow-walking, also telling him the benefits, such as the fact that it can't be stopped by anti-apparition wards and is almost completely undetectable by any known magical devices, though for some odd reason, cats could tell when it happened. And, apparently, they didn't like this particular form of travel either because whenever they felt it, they would attack whoever showed up.

Although it was a powerful ability, it still had its problems, such as the fact that there has to be a shadow for him to step into before he could do it. Also, it had a limited distance, depending on how powerful the shade is, they could go anywhere from across the room to being able to shadow step all the way to France. The longer the distance, the more difficult it is to shadow-step there.

After about an hour or so of Shadow's ministrations, Harry was ready to try it. Removing him from the "safe" room, as he had come to call it, and returning to the present, he looked into his shadow and stepped _into_ it.

The place that Harry found he had entered was known as the shadow plane, not completely light, but not completely darkness either, much like the world he had come from, and it was big, I mean **really **big. Even though it corresponded with the real world, it had to be at least twice its size. Shadow had mentioned something about this, but it didn't make any sense at the time. He had said that the Shadow plane seems to stretch and shrink at certain times of the day when there are more shadows to choose from, and since it was dusk, it was only natural that it would be at its largest. What Harry didn't expect, were the creatures. Sure, Shadow told him about them, but it was only to warn him to get away from them as fast as possible. From the looks of it, that wouldn't be happening anytime soon, because the Shadow Dragon that stood not a hundred feet away was looking right at him with a curious look on its face.

Harry couldn't do anything. The Dragon was huge, much bigger than the Hungarian Horntail that he faced in his fourth year, and the eyes showed intelligence to equal that of any human, if not surpass them.

It just reeked of power.

When Harry finally returned to his senses, he turned around and booked it. He didn't know where he was going, but if he could get away from that Dragon, then he would live to see tomorrow, and that would be worth it, even if he did get hopelessly lost.

His thoughts were interrupted when the beast landed right in front of him and Harry almost ran into it. Looking up, Harry was terrified to find its enormous yellow eyes staring at him.

Now, the dragon was intrigued to find this flesh ling running around on his plane when he hadn't seen one for the past century at least, and so questioned him, "What are you doing here, flesh ling?"

The sheer power that radiated from his voice would be enough to send the hardiest of warriors running in terror, so the Dragon was surprised to find this boy show nothing of his fear other than the slight quiver in his voice.

"I, I'm here to walk to gringotts."

"How did you get here?"

"I shadow stepped."

Now the dragon was truly amazed. There hadn't been a shadow stepper since he was an egg, and that was a very, **very**long time ago.

"How can you do such a thing?"

"My sword," Harry's answer was completely honest, though he decided not to tell the shadow dragon about his mentor.

For the first time, the Dragon noticed the blade sitting at this puny things hip, then a very unexpected thing happened, the dragon's face showed fear. Although it hid its fear quickly, it wasn't fast enough to be missed by Harry. He was curious as to why a being of such great power would be afraid ofjust a littlesword, but before he could question it, the dragon was just…gone.

Note: Thanks to all the readers who reviewed, and to all the readers that didn't review, may Shadow take you into the pits of Darkness and do things that I can't even think up.

P.S. Thanks to all ideas for an Animagus from my readers, I hope to have the chapter about his form up soon. After his Gringotts visit anyway.


	8. He's back

A few blinks of his eyes later, and Harry realized that he should probably keep moving. The dragon might have been afraid of him, but that didn't mean that anything else on this plane was, now, which way was Gringotts? As if in answer to his question, the sword at his hip attempted to pull him in one direction, toward a mountain or some large building, he couldn't tell on this plane.

"Okay, okay, I'm going," as if he had any other choice. Returning his gaze to the horizon, he almost jumped out of his skin, after all, it's not everyday that somebody materializes out of nothing without a sound.

She was quite short, but that didn't stop Harry from noticing how beautiful she was, even though she had a blackish tinge to her skin that made it almost impossible for her to be noticed in this plane of shadow. Besides her skin, her violet eyes were a dead ringer that the creature was definitely not human

"Well?" she asked.

"Well what?"

She sighed at this, and then muttered something along the lines of, "stupid humans," followed by a bunch of gibberish, at least to his ears.

"Get up,"

This abrupt change of subject had him more confused than he was before, but he did what he was told, after all, the sword wasn't warning him against here, and it seemed like she was trying to help, even if it was in a bit of a rough manner.

"Um, I'm Harry," he said by way of introduction.

"I don't really care, now, where is it that you needed to go?"

Again taken aback by her brusque manner, Harry gave her another look as if to appraise her anew, "Why do you want to know?"

"Because I want you out of my territory before you attract something more dangerous than that shadow dragon and I can't very well force you to leave, so I might as well get you where you're going so I don't have to worry about it anymore," she seemed almost angry as she said this.

"You're territory?"

"Yes, my territory, don't they teach you anything about the shadow realm in that little world of yours?"

"Not really, if not for this sword, I wouldn't even know about it."

As she saw it, that same look of fear flashed across her face that he had noticed right before the dragon disappeared, but before he could question it, she asked, "Where are you going?"

"Um, Gringotts?"

"Alright, and be quick about it, there's no time to lose," with that, she turned and started walking him in the same direction that the sword had motioned toward. Before he knew it, she was already a hundred feet away, but when he thought about it, he realized why. The world of shadow, lots of shadows to choose from, and with that, he stepped into the shadow of some ruins next to him, and appeared right next to her. She jumped, as if surprised, but with a quick look at the sword again, she picked up the pace. Within minutes, he could see Gringotts, or at least he thought he did.

Then the girl stopped, and turned to Harry so suddenly that he had to take a step back, lest he run into her, "this is Gringotts, take a few steps closer, and you should be guided through all the wards and such, goodbye."

He started to walk forward, but the he turned around to ask her name, only to realize that she was already gone. Scratching his head, he turned toward Gringotts, just in time to jump away from the goblin standing not two paces in front of him.

"What is it with people appearing out of thin air here?"

"Actually, Mr. Potter, it's fairly thick shadow, and that changes the subject entirely, but that is not the reason for my trip out here. My name is Wrapwrong, and I am to lead you into Gringotts proper."

"Um, how did you know that I was coming?"

"You're close enough to Gringotts for it's primary wards to activate and let us know of approaching persons and/or creatures, and yes, I can read minds, but only partially, but enough to feel sorry for you while you were living under the stairs while Dudley was being potty trained."

Suppressing a shudder, he said, "I would appreciate it if you would keep that to yourself Mr. Wrapwrong," waking up each morning to a steady drip of cold piss on your forehead for three months is not very pleasnt.

"Of course Mr. Potter, Shall we be going now?"

"Lead the way."

"It's not so much leading the way, as it is, stepping into it," Wrapwrong.

"Wha…" and before he knew what was going on, the diminutive creature had grabbed his hand and pulled him down into the shadow stuff that he was standing on. Naturally, Harry fought it, but to no avail, it was just too strong of a pull. He didn't stop wriggling until he realized that he was actually re-entering the world proper. With a pop of displacing air, Harry was back.

I realize that it's been a while since I last updated this, but I hope anyone that reads it will still enjoy it.


	9. Into the depths

"Um, it seems a bit different since the last time that I was here," Harry questioned.

"Of course we've made adjustments to the bank since the war became public."

That was the best explanation for the things that had happened to Gringotts since last year, such as the ten foot stone golem that was holding a giant axe and was standing in front of him, and the heavily armored goblins walking around the lobby. It wasn't until Bill Weasley walked by with a sword strapped to his hip that Harry realized just how much preparing the goblins had done.

"Bill?"

Doing a double take, Bill still had to take a closer look to make sure that it actually was the Harry that he had met last year. Besides being a bit taller, which wasn't all that odd for boys his age, his hair had grown unkempt, and, if he wasn't mistaken, his skin had somehow darkened. It was a good thing that he was absorbed in trying to figure out why he had darker skin that he didn't even notice the sword at his hip.

"Harry? Is that you? I thought you were supposed to be at your uncle's house?"

Harry winced at that, he wasn't really expecting to be caught going to Gringotts, but it didn't really matter as he was the only one with control of his life now, "A slight change of plans."

He blinked, as though he couldn't comprehend what it meant, but then he smiled in the way that most Weasley's have when they know that mischief is afoot, winked, and said, "You were never here," before walking away.

Wrapwrong shared a confused look with the guards, along with a shrug, and then motioned to Harry saying, "This way Mr. Potter."

They proceeded to the lobby, when Wrapwrong stopped abruptly and said to Harry, "I trust that you can find your way around from here Mr. Potter?" and, without waiting for an answer disappeared into the crowd of working goblins.

Frankly, Harry didn't really know what to do, after all, he hadn't been in Gringotts alone in, well, ever. He decided the direct approach might be the best one, so walked into a line for the nearest goblin teller.

One minute….

Two minutes….

Three minutes….

Twenty minutes…

"Oh for crying out loud! What's taking so long?"

"Next!"

Harry sheepishly looked around, only to realize that everyone within hearing distance of him was staring at him, and also that the goblin was talking to him. He cast his eyes down, and then sort of stumbled forward.

"What is your business?"

"I would like access to the Potter Vault please."

"And do you have reason to be there?"

Harry blinked, and then thought about it before saying, "I'm Harry Potter, can I just visit my own vault?"

That caused the goblins head to snap up and his eyes to search Harry as if to affirm what he had just stated. He looked at the hair, the eyes, and then, finally, to the infamous scar that everyone recognized immediately. What Harry wasn't expecting was the way the he also took in the color of his skin as though he know what he now was. Then he simply looked back down at his desk, sketched a quick note, and said, "Take this to the trolley operator, he'll know what to do."

Although mystified about this process, Harry stepped toward the trolley, and didn't even realize that he stepped through his shadow to appear right next to the operator. Without missing a beat, the goblin took the note from his hand and said, "Step into the trolley."

As soon as he was in, the cart took off at breakneck speed into the depth of Gringotts vaults. Deeper and deeper they went, until the vaults became more like catacombs than places to store ones gold. He was so interested in what they were passing that he didn't even realize that they were slowing down.

When they finally stopped, Harry stood up, and was amazed. In front of him, stood a dragon that dwarfed even the Hungarian Horntail that he had faced last year.

"This way Mr. Potter," which caused Harry to look down and begin to follow this goblin, to the left of the dragon, past the many columns that were foundations of the bank far above, into an alcove that, had he not been led there, he never would have known that it existed.

"Place your hand on the metal slate."

Doing as he was told, it was warm, despite the cool temperature of the cavernous depths, he felt a small pinprick and immediately removed his hand. Looking at his injured palm, he saw the small cut heal up almost instantly. Turning his gaze to the metal plate, he watched it absorb the blood, _his_ blood, and then a grinding sound as the stone shifted and a door way was revealed. He walked towards it, only to be stopped by the goblin saying, "Place your wand in the holster."

Confused, he looked around for the holster that he had mentioned, and before his very eyes, the stone made a spot for him to place the wand. He still wasn't used to the world of magic. Dropping his wand into the slot, the stone receded, as though to steal the wand, and before he could even motion to take it back, it was gone. Looking at the dwarf, he was about to question him when there was a flash, and Harry was somewhere else.


	10. Just a few questions

A sound of crashing, a flair of magic, a small explosion, repeat. At least, that's what Dumbledore was planning on doing when he finally got back to his tower in Hogwarts, but then, a thought occurred to him, he should actually investigate what was going on with Harry Potter to see if there was any chance of him getting the control that he once had back. Now, where to start? Instead of returning to Hogwarts, he decided to apparate straight to the Burrow for the interrogation to come.

For the coming confrontation with the youngest Weasley boy, Dumbledore had to prepare himself, after all, no one actually knew of Dumbledore's agenda in this matter, or, ever, for that matter. A short walk was all that he needed to return to the façade of the person that everyone knew and loved with the twinkly eye and the cheery face. A knock later, and the mask was complete and in place once again.

Mrs. Weasley answered the door amid her shouting at her sons and daughter, something about chores or homework, either way, Dumbledore didn't care. "Hello Mrs. Weasley, how are you today?"

Molly seemed surprised to find the great Albus Dumbledore at her doorstep, but after having the Weasley twins, nothing set her off her toes for long, "Hello Albus, staying busy as always, what brings you to the Burrow? Where are my manners, won't you come in, you're just in time for lunch if you'd like?"

"That would be delightful Molly," Dumbledore said as he stepped through the kitchen door into the chaos of the Weasley residence. With pot in hand and a look of determination on her face, Mrs. Weasley stepped into the dining room filled with a mess of redheads that made it seem as though there was a sea of red in the room. It didn't help that each and every one of them was moving at the insane pace that can only be managed by hungry teenagers and wild animals.

"Kids, we have a visitor," and, as though given a signal from above, all of them became completely motionless and stared at the man following their mother. A moment of recognition followed by one of confusion and then they all sat down, it was all quite eery on their part. Before he could say hello, the final two Weasleys apparated right in the middle of the room, on top of the dining room table, holding what appeared to be rockets in their hands.

"Fred, George, if you launch thos-," but she was cut off by the whizzing of the items in question and the crack of disapparition. The rockets just levitated in midair for a minute before taking off in a spectacular fashion, exploding and going the complete opposite way that was intended, which was unfortunate for the twins because they had apparated into the living room to watch the fun only to have their inventions hurtling towards them at an unbelievably fast pace. At first, there was laughter, and then they realized what was going on, mainly because they got hit by the rockets, and then the laughter really began, but this time coming from the rest of the family. A few howls and cries later, and the rockets were spent, and the two Weasleys stumbled into the dining room amid a chorus of encore and clapping. Instead of being embarrassed though, the twins stood their tallest, and then they both took deep bows in turn, which only increased the laughter as their hair was aflame.

"I told you they weren't to be launched in the house, now you see why."

"MOM? You booby-trapped the house against us?"

"Of course, the logical method of forbidding you to do it never seems to work so I decided to pull a leaf out of your book, fight fire with fire so to speak."

The Weasley children looked at each other for a long moment and then turned towards their mother with shocked looks on their faces, "We didn't know you had it in you," Ginny said.

"Well, where did you think you got it from?" she replied with a mischevious smirk on her face, "Enough of that though, we have a guest."

And thus, the attention was returned to Dumbledore, "Good morning to you all."

"Hello professor," was heard from each of the children.

"He'll be joining us for lunch, but, what was it again that brought you here today?"

"I had hoped to ask Ronald some questions concerning Harry," and, noticing the looks of concern that crossed everyone's face, he added, "in private."

"Well, it can be done after lunch whatever it may be, now we're just waiting for Arnold and Bill, and here they are."

"Hello mum," Bill said, stepping through the front door, while her husband stepped quite gracefully out of the fireplace and said, "Hello all."

"Sit down everyone, lunch is almost done," and with that, she hurried back into the kitchen while everyone else took their seats.

"Well, Albus, I wasn't expecting to see you here," Arnold said, but Dumbledore didn't miss the way that Bill's head snapped at the name.

"Yes, I just stopped by to ask Ronald some questions and apparently I couldn't have chosen a better time than now, I positively adore Molly's cooking."

Whatever might have been said after that was interrupted by the re-entrance of Molly with the main course. "Alright everyone, dig in," and with that, all speaking stopped, it was pointless as the din of scraping silver and shouting for food, and the occasional small scuffle that broke out around the table, drowned any conversations out.

Half an hour later, as the dishes were clearing themselves, small talk started to break out among the adults, but, the children teens, they decided not to stick around, and began to disperse around the house, except for Ron, who Dumbledore held back.

"Well, I must get going," Arnold said, "Good to see you again Dumbledore."

"Always a pleasure Arnold, now, Ronald, where may we speak in private?"

"Take the office, Arnold added it on for his tinkering, but as he's gone right now, I doubt anyone else will enter willingly," Mrs. Weasley said.

"Thank you Molly."

As Ron led the way, Albus contemplated Bill's reaction to his presence. What could have made Bill so leery of him? Within seconds though, they were at the office of which Molly spoke.

"Professor, you may not want to touch anything when we get in there, none of us know what anything does, and we're not entirely sure that dad does either," Ron said.

"Thank you for the warning Ronald, shall we continue?"

Ron opened the door and the two of them were met by darkness, that is, until Ronald turned on the light. From the looks of it, Arnold had quite a collection of everyday muggle items such as a blender, a microwave, and what appeared to be a gameboy, among many other things.

Shaking off his curiosity at what truly lied in the pile of muggle artifacts that Arnold had, Albus turned to the matter at hand, "Ronald, what happened to Harry after the three of you left Hogwarts?"

He shrugged, "Nothing much different than the rest of the years professor, he was kind of depressed about Sirius death though, so he wasn't very talkative, less so than normal I mean."

"Has he contacted you since you departed?"

"No professor, at least, I don't think so."

Dumbledore believed him, but he decided to take a look through Ron's memories just to make sure that he wouldn't miss anything that an un-attentive teenager might overlook.

Without Ron even realizing what was happening, Dumbledore was in. There wasn't all that much to the boy, what you saw was what you got so to speak. Sifting through his memories Dumbledore found the ones that he was looking for. Watching from what transpired from Harry stepping on to the train, to, pretty much, just the end of the ride at platform 9 ¾, Dumbledore learned that there really was nothing to the trip that would tip anyone off.

Returning to Arnold's office, Dumbledore concluded his meeting, "Thank you Ronald, that was all that I needed to know," but before he could leave, Ron grabbed his arm and asked a question with his eyes, "Harry is alright, I know it as truth, I saw him not four hours ago." And with that, Dumbledore was done at the Weasley household. Walking back the way that he had come, he passed Molly, bid her good day, and continued toward the door. He also passed Bill, and with a little bit of surface legilimency, he caught a flash of Harry Potter at Gringotts. With a smile of victory, Dumbledore left.


End file.
